The darkest side of me
by dark-and-deadly
Summary: The crew is up against their most demonic opponent yet, but is Luffy strong enough to destroy one of his own Nakama? read to find out.
1. Nightmare or a memory?

**A/N: Kay so this is my second fanfic and my first chapter fic so I really hope it turns out.**

**Disclaimer: I don own One Piece cause if I did then I wouldn't be righting this.**

**One more thing, **"talking", 'thinking'

**Onward to the story!!**

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'A little boy no older than six ran blindly down the main street of his village, the smoke from the burning homes and shops stung his nose and lungs as he ran. The pirates that had destroyed his home were hot on his tail. Bullets nearly missing him as he turned blindly into an alleyway and strait into a dead-end.

"Well, well, well, what have we here?!" sneered the leader of the small group "A little rat that thinks he can run away from us, hmm?" he laughed as did the five others behind him.

"Oi, boss, cap'n said to kill everyone right? Including woman and children?" Asked one of the lackeys excitedly.

"Indeed he did." Said the boss.

Fear set itself like a cold stone inside the green-haired boy's stomach. He took a step backward only to find his back pressed against a brick wall. He gulped as the pirates moved closer; he was trapped and would die because of his poor directional skills. He squeezed his eyes shut and waited for death to greet him, but the one thing he didn't expect was for someone to whisper to him.

'_Kill them, destroy them!_' the sinister voice hissed in his ear '_Make them pay for what they did to you, to us!_'

The young boy hung his head and seamed to relax, this confused the pirates.

"What….the…hell?" Questioned the leader. The aura around the boy seemed to change; it was darker more…..evil than before. The six year-old's hands slowly began to clench into fists, his shoulders became hunched and he began to quiver, but not with fear, with anger. His head slowly rose and he opened his eyes causing the pirates to gasp. The once dark jade eyes had turned an alarming shade of bright crimson.

The horrified screams of the villagers and pirates alike were joined with the cries of "Demon!!" and "Monster!!" It was about half an hour before the navy arrived. The marines got off of their ships expecting to battle with pirates, but what they found was a smoldering village and a huge massacre. What was confusing was that the bodies of the people they could identify were of both pirates and villagers, and all of them seemed to have the same horrified expression on their face.

"Search for survivors." Said the marine captain.

"Hai, sir." Saluted the solders.

Captain Brago had seen some horrible things in his life, but this had to be the worst. Blood was everywhere; it was splashed across the remaining chard stone and brick walls. It was still oozing out of the wounds of the mangled corpses making sickening pools beneath them. It streamed into the streets so his boots would splash through it. It made him sick, not just all the blood but the horrible stench. It seemed that the very ground was decaying.

"Sir, there's a kid up here, and he's alive!!" The eerie silence was broken by one of Brago's men. He ran up the main road toward the center of the town, where the mass of bodies got thicker. He slowed to a halt next to his lieutenant, the one who had called, only to stare at what was seated in front of them. A green-haired boy no older than six was rocking back and forth and shaking, his arms where wrapped around his knees and he had his face buried in them. From his hands to his elbows where completely covered with blood, the sticky liquid matted his hair and he seemed to be crying.

"Oi, kid it's going to be alright." Brago tried to calm the boy. The marine captain moved closer, but the kid's head shot up.

"STAY AWAY FROM ME!!" He shouted it was a mixture of anger, fear, and confusion. Brago gasped, the kid's eyes where the same color as the blood that was splashed across his face.

"d…d…d..DEMON!!" The stuttered yell came before the terrified scream, and once again blood splashed into the night sky.'

Zoro's eyes snapped open to face the fading sapphire sky; he realized he was drenched in a cold sweat from the nightmare. He sighed as he sat up; he had been having that dream a lot lately. He took a deep breath to try and slow his rapidly beating heart. Looking around the deck of the Sunny, Zoro decided to join Luffy at the bow of the ship. As he got up however, he endured a dull throbbing in his forehead, he tried to rub the pain away but it didn't help. Deciding to ignore his newly born headache Zoro made his way over to the lion figurehead where Luffy was sitting.

The straw-hated teen seemed completely oblivious to the swordsman's presence. Zoro looked out toward the horizon which was interrupted by the large island they where headed for. As soon as he laid eyes on the mass of land a sharp pain erupted in his skull. He hissed and began to massage his temples; this of course caused Luffy to look at him in curiosity.

"You okay?" the captain questioned.

"Yeah, yeah." He waved him off. "I just have a bit of a headache that's all."

"Oh." He paused "You sure?"

Zoro nodded, the pain had already ebbed off into a dull throbbing again. He chanced another look toward the island; he had no idea that the lonely spit of land that was slowing growing larger was going to be the start of all his problems. Chimamire-kairiku (A/N: translates to bloodstained-land and sea, I think not completely sure -.-) 'odd name for an island' he thought. They would be docking in half an hour or so, but his thoughts of the island were interrupted when his captain called his name.

"Zoro?"

"humm"

"Is….is it." Luffy let out a sigh; Zoro turned and arched an eyebrow.

"What."

"Nothing, it's stupid." The teen didn't look at him, a sure sign that something was troubling him.

"Out with it."

" Is it okay to have nightmares?" The swordsman almost laughed out loud at the question, but he couldn't help the smile that came across his face.

"Yes Luffy it's perfectly normal, a nightmare is just your conscience playing on your fear."

"Well I wish it would stop." The raven-haired teen folded his arms across his chest in a pout. Zoro chuckled the kid was too innocent for his own good.

"What? What's so funny?"

"Nothing." He said.

"I bet you never have nightmares." Luffy flashed him that smile of his, needless to say the remark caught him off guard.

"Oh, and why do you say that?" He thought it best to turn his attention to the churning water below.

"Cause your not afraid of anything."

"Heh." He stared at the water with a bleak expression 'yeah not afraid of anything.' He thought 'I'm just terrified of myself.'

To be continued….

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**Short I know but please, I promise it gets better! Tell me what you think, review Oh and I up date when I get….say five good reviews.**


	2. All because of a headache

Hi everyone, guess who's not dead! –doges the rocks that are thrown at head- I'm sooooooooo sorry for the long, long, long, long wait. Life got in the way.

"talking", '_thinking_', _"something else" _

**Disclaimer: I own not One Piece, God help us if I did.**

**Enough of my ramblings onward to the story! **

The sun had sunk beneath the waters in a beautiful array of golden orange, pink, and red when they had docked at a small inlet with a barely visible dirt path leading into the port-side town a little further up the coast line. Luffy being Luffy wanted to go explore as soon as they had landed but with it being dark and Nami playing the dinners-almost-ready card they had convinced the rubber teen to wait until the next morning.

All was well.

"Nami-Swan! Robin-Chan! Your dinner of _love_ is ready! Oi, the rest of you idiots get your Asses in here! Food's ready!" Sanji called from the galley door. Luffy was like a bullet out of a pistol at this statement, lunching himself at record speed toward the galley: only to be met by a polished black shoe to the face. "Ladies first you shit head!"

"Mah, Sanji." Luffy whined, the blonde just sent the boy a glare. Robin smiled at the cook as she entered the galley, Nami right behind her.

"Thanks Sanji-kun."

"Of course my sweet." He smiled at her "_Now_, the rest of you idiots can go in." Sanji stood at the doorway and watched as everyone entered.

Zoro was staring at the plate of food in front of him when a sudden wave of nausea hit him. Not to his surprise a rubbery hand started the sneak up to his plate and for once, he didn't mind. The chef on the other hand must have caught the sick look on Zoro's face because a stake knife quickly blocked Luffy's progress.

"Oi, marimo, what's the matter? Food not good enough for you?" Sanji's voice was low and menacing; the swordsman just sent him a glare and began shoveling the food down his throat. This proved to be harder than he thought; it wasn't that the food was terrible (not like he would ever tell the cook that); it was the fact that he had to use all of his will power to keep it down. The normal dinner chaos continued thus causing Zoro's headache to become even worse. The constant clatter of dishes and shouting seamed to be amplified a hundred fold. As the plates were being cleared, Zoro was rubbing his temples in a futile attempt to dull the dreaded pounding and trying not to throw up.

"Something wrong Zoro bro?" asked Franky. The simple question brought just about everyone's attention to said swordsman. Zoro looked up and stopped rubbing his forehead.

'_Well this is just bloody perfect._' He thought bitterly to himself. "No, I'm fine." Zoro lied. Luffy blinked and looked confusedly at him

"But you said that you had a headache." The straw-hated teen said innocently. Zoro sent him a look that said shut-your-trap.

"You have a headache?" Chopper about shouted looking alarmed. "Doctor! We need a doctor!"

"You _are_ the doctor." Usopp reminded him.

"Oh, your right."

"It's just a headache." Zoro tried to assure them, but even as he spoke the pounding was getting worse. "I'm fine." But Chopper wasn't listening and within seconds the reindeer doctor was upon him checking for fever and trying to see if the swordsman's pupils were dilated. Zoro irritably swatted the little doctor away. "I said I was fine, damn it!"

"Marimo, you don't even know when you lose half of the blood in your body." Sanji snorted while lighting a new cigarette.

"I can handle a little headache, curly brows." Zoro growled through clenched teeth as he swatted Chopper away for the second time. Trying to block out the blinding pain in his skull along with the churning of his stomach and the crew pestering him about his head and aho-chef's annoying insults and Chopper's persistence, he had had enough. Slamming his hands on the table and standing suddenly Zoro shouted "GOD DAMN IT, I SAID I WAS FINE!" instantly he regretted the action because the room began to spin. Zoro stumbled and fell backwards hitting his back against the wall. Leaning there he tried to regain his balance and make the room stop spinning, but his vision continued to blur in and out of focus and nausea came at him full force. The last thing Zoro remembered before he blacked out was a burning white hot pain overtaking his body and then hitting the floor.

"The hell just happened?" Sanji blurted out looking slightly alarmed. One minute the swordsman was yelling at them and the next he was on the floor. The crew rushed in around the felled swordsman asking question after question.

"Is he alright?" asked Franky leaning over to see.

"Of course he isn't alright you numbskull!" Nami yelled at him.

"Ahhh! Zoro died!" Usopp cried looking panicked. Nami whacked him over the head.

"Idiot! Don't say things like that."

"Nahh. Zoro." Luffy poked the swordsman in the chest. "Get up already."

Chopper was checking Zoro's vitals, and was relieved to find him still breathing.

"Perhaps we should get kenchi-san to the sick-bay." Robin calmly suggested. Chopper nodded in agreement and turned into heavy point.

-.-.-

With the swordsman in the sick-bay and Chopper tending to him, the others where left to wait and worry. Sanji was doing the dishes while the others where seated around the table.

"Why the hell didn't you tell us he had a head ache?" Nami yelled at Luffy.

"I didn't think it was important." Said the raven-haired teen; folding his arms across his chest.

"Well do you think its important now?"

"Eh…no." Nami drove her fist into Luffy's rubber cranium causing it to slam into the table…hard. "But Naaami." Luffy whined "Chopper will take care of it."

"Yes, but..." Nami started

"I believe that shenco-san is correct"

"R-robin!" the navigator sputtered in disbelief.

"Do ya think the swordsman-bro got hit too hard on the head in the last battle?" asked Franky pushing up his sunglasses and raising an eyebrow.

"No. I don't believe so. The last battle was a few weeks ago, kenchi-san would have felt the effects long before, that is if it had been a concussion or anything of that nature."

"Ahh~ Robin-chan is so beautiful when she is giving her opinion." Sanji swooned over his shoulder. Turning to Robin and ignoring the gushing blonde Ussop said

"You have a point. But this is Zoro we're talking about!". "He could have just been acting like he was fine! What if there is something really wrong this time! What if…" Luffy cut him off.

"We should believe in our doctor."

"L-Luffy." The long-nose stared wide eyed at him and Luffy in return gave him that smile of his.

"Everything will be alright, Zoro is strong and Chopper is the best doctor around. So there's nothing to worry about." The raven-haired teen was still smiling after his little captain-ish speech. Everyone in the galley seamed to relax a little, a few even had smiles tugging at their lips, their captain had a way with making any situation feel, at the vary least, a little better.

-Meanwhile in the sickbay-

Zoro was lying on the infirmary bed out cold, his skin was paler that it should be and his fingers would twitch every so often. Chopper was worried. Franticly the little reindeer was flipping through every medical book he owned. Sighing he shut the large volume he had been reading, he had come up empty handed once again. Zoro's symptoms just didn't match up with anything that that made any sense. Sure the grand line was a weird place to begin with, but there was something funny about this. Chopper turned his worried gaze back to the swordsman '_why can't I figure out what's wrong with you?_'

-.-.-

Zoro was having the sickening sensation of falling. Bracing himself for impact, he began to wonder what the hell had happened to him. The last thing he remembered was yelling at the crew that he was fine in the galley, now this. Rather than smashing into the unforgiving earth he splashed into what must be the ocean. His survival instinct kicked in immediately and he began to pump his legs and arms trying to get back to the surface.

It was as though he had become a devil-fruit user, no matter how hard he flailed and fought against the liquid his body only sank farther. His energy was waning and he was running out of air '_I can't die yet!_' he thought panic stricken. What he thought was water was pressing in on him from all sides as the last bubble of air left his lungs; the liquid began to fill his mouth and nose. This caused further panic as he realized what he had fallen into was not water but actually blood. It clung to his skin and soaked his clothing; he choked and gagged on the metallic liquid as it forced its way down his throat. Desperate for air Zoro struggled harder, but it was useless, he was pulled down like a sack of hammers. He began to feel himself slip away. '_No! I don't want to die!_' his hand reached toward where he thought the surface to be. '_Not yet! Please not yet, I have something I have to do!_'

_**"Well then my child, why don't you let me have control?"**_ the sinister voice hissed in his ear. _**"If you let me I can save you, not only from this, but from everything you fear."**_

With a shuttering gasp Zoro bolted upright and was thrown into a coughing fit. He couldn't get the taste of blood out of his mouth; he could still smell it and feel it on his skin too. After he managed to catch his breath he looked around, he was in the sick bay. '_It was just a dream._' That was strange, what happened, did he pass out? The door opened and Chopper walked in, not noticing that the swordsman was awake. Humming to himself Chopper sat down in his rolley chair.

"How long have I been out?" Zoro asked casually.

With a startled cry Chopper flew about a foot in the air and off of his chair. The reindeer just stared at the swordsman who in response raised an eyebrow. "Well?" the swordsman prompted. Chopper finely found his voice.

"All night." He answered.

"Oh, okay then." He figured that one night was better than finding out he had been asleep for two days. Zoro suddenly cringed; his headache came back full force. Chopper saw this and right away was on him.

"Zoro, are you feeling okay? Did your headache come back? Do you fe…."

"I'm fine." The swordsman cut him off before the rapped fire questions continued. Chopper gave him the don't-try-to-weasel-out-treatment look. "Really Chopper I'm fine." The swordsman mustered up a convincing smile. Chopper was falling for it.

"Are you sure you're feeling ok? No headache or anything?" he wanted to believe Zoro, he really did, but the man was known for blowing off treatment when he needed it.

"I must have just needed to sleep it off." The green-haired man said while keeping up his façade over the blinding pain in his temple.

"BREAKFAST!" Sanji called from the galley.

Chopper looked toward the door then back at Zoro.

"We're going to miss breakfast."

"Are you _sure _you're okay?" the doctor was searching the swordsman's face for any indication that he would be lying.

"I am fine, I just needed to rest." The reindeer doctor wasn't very hard to convince but with the smile and the way he was talking Zoro could have convinced the marines that he was the head of the world government.

"No head ache?"

"No head ache." Chopper searched his face again, but found nothing to convict the swordsman of lying. "You should get going before our bottomless pit of a captain eats everything." Realizing the truth of this statement the furry doctor bolted for the door, but froze when he got there.

"There is some pain pills on the desk if your head ache comes back, one should be enough. If it gets real bad..." he gave the swordsman a pleading look."Come see me."

"Will do." Zoro lied through his teeth, as he watched the doctor leave for the galley.

The 19 year-olds expression quickly turned to one of pain as soon as the doctor had left the sickbay. It felt like someone was trying to smash in his head with a mallet. This stupid headache, was causing him to do several things he didn't like; first and foremost was lying (witch he seemed to be doing a lot of lately), next was the fact that he would have to put up a front just to deal with everyone, and he could probably think of more but the damn pain in his temple refused to allow it. He briefly wondered if the dreams had anything to do with it.

He got up and pulled his boots back on. Groaning inwardly he thought that he should probably get to the galley himself. The galley meant noise, noise meant a worse headache. His eyes traveled to the pills on Chopper's desk. No! He would not give in, it was just a stupid headache, and he could handle this!

The chaos that was also known as breakfast was well under way if not almost over when the swordsman reached the door. Zoro grimiest as he mentally and physically prepared himself for what awaited him beyond the galley door. '_At least I don't feel like I'm going to throw up anymore.'_ He thought joylessly. With a heavy sigh and a forced smile he pushed the door open.

Luffy paused briefly (if 2.05 seconds counts as briefly) in his gorging to look at the swordsman.

"About damn time you decided to get your lazy ass up." Sanji said while scanning the green-haired man for any sign of damage.

"I'll get up whenever I damn well feel like it ero-cook!" Zoro barked back.

"What was that shitty swordsman?"

"You heard me dartboard brow."

"You fixing for a fight marimo."

"Will the two of you quit it! It's way too early for this." Nami said crossly as she swatted Luffy's hand away from her plate, but her normal bite wasn't behind her words. It seemed that she was trying to decide whether or not Zoro was okay.

"You seem to be back to your normal self kenchi-san." Robin smiled her mysterious smile at him.

"Yeah." He lied as he sat down; everyone else had finished by now.

"Glad to have ya back swordsman-bro!" Franky clapped him on the back hard enough to get a grunt out of him.

"So you're feeling better?" asked Luffy, his dark eyes boring holes into the green-haired man.

"Yes Luffy, I feel fine." Luffy grinned that childish grin of his and said

"See! I told ya he would be okay, Choppers the best."

"YOUR COMMENT DOESN'T MAKE ME HAPPY AT ALL YOU BASTURD!" Chopper wiggled with joy before something dawned on him. "But I didn't do anything." Zoro cringed

"What do you mean you didn't _do_ anything?" Nami asked heatedly

"I'm fine." the swordsman interjected "I just needed to sleep it off." She glared, obviously not believing him. Sanji placed a plate of food in front of him.

"Eat." He ordered. Zoro didn't need any more prompting than that, he was starving by now. Shoveling a fork full of eggs into his mouth the swordsman realized that he was being watched. The crew was staring at him intensely; he found this to be quit awkward.

"I'm okay, really." He said through a mouthful of bacon and ignoring the throbbing in his temple. Nami opened her mouth as though to protest but Robin cut her off.

"Now that kenchi-san is here and seems to be feeling better, I have something I would like to share with you all."

"Awww, but Robin, I want to go explore." Luffy whined "and besides this place reeks of adventure!" A black dress shoe smashed into the captain's head.

"Listen to what Robin-chan has to say!"

"Thank you cook-san." She nodded to him as Luffy picked himself up off the floor. "But shencho-san." She turned back to her captain. "What I have to say pertains to this island." Robin produced a large volume seemingly out of nowhere. Zoro was finished by now, having learned to eat quickly do to traveling with Luffy. Robin flipped through the old tattered text book. "I thought that I had heard of Chimamire-kairiku before." She paused as she flipped to the page she had been looking for "I remembered it because I thought it was interesting, you see Chimamire-kairku was originally known as Akarai ha*."

"How come they changed the name to something so….morbid?" asked Nami

"That's what I found to be interesting navigator-san; it changed when what they call the portal to hell opened."

"P-p-portal to hell?" Usopp was sinking under the table "I think my I-can't-step-foot-on-this-island-due-to-evil-forces disease is acting up again." Zoro looked up at this new bit of information and his head began to throb a bit worse than before, he fought the urge to rub is temples.

"Evidently a few years ago strange monsters started appearing only on this island and seamed to be centered around the fortress that is actually, if this map in the book is correct, not too far from here." Everyone leaned in around the open book to get a better look at the map that had been drawn over the two pages. The raven-haired woman was pointing at a small building that looked like a child's drawing of a castle.

"Are you saying that demons run wild on this island?" asked the navigator.

"At lest that is what the legend is." Replied Robin.

"What's a demon?" asked Chopper with wide eyes

"A green-haired brute of a creature that swings around three swords named Zoro." Sanji answered the youngest crewmember with sly smile. A vain bulged on the swordsman's forehead when everyone turned to look at him.

"You're hilarious." Zoro growled, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

"I thought so." The chef smiled as though he won something. If it weren't for the pounding in his head Zoro would have punched the stupid grin off his face, he wasn't in the mood.

"A demon" Robin turned back to the now confused crewmembers, Luffy included "is a supernatural being that is generally described as a malevolent spirit." Both Chopper and Luffy nodded. Nami smacked Luffy in the back of the head

"Don't nod like you know what she's talking about." Copper turned to Luffy.

"It means that they're evil or really bad spirits or creatures that want to cause harm." Again the captain nodded.

"So they're mystery creatures." The straw hated teen said while pounding his fist into his palm.

"In a matter of speaking; yes." Robin nodded "but as I was saying these _things_ for lack of a better word started popping up and slaughtering the townspeople." She flipped the page "They were called demons due to their looks." She pointed to the page she had flipped to; on it was a sketch of a gruesome looking thing. The drawing displayed a foul creature that looked like something between an over grown dog crossed with a human, its head was humanoid but stretched into a sort of mussel, the ears were overgrown and pointed and the jaw came down just a bit too low showing off the rows of extremely pointed teeth. The neck was long and curved down into a masculine chest and, the oversized arms bulged with muscle and the 'hands' of it were long gnarled finger like appendages with talon-ish claws on the end of each digit, the back legs looked around the same only more like a dog. But the most striking thing was the eyes, mostly because they were the only thing that were colored on the foul being, they were red like blood and seemed to glow even on the old drawing.

Shivers ran down the spines of several crewmembers and Zoro's headache seemed to pulse with excitement as though the pain had a mind of its own. Nami shook her head.

"There is no such things as demons." She looked slightly disturbed but her voice was firm "They don't exist." There were a few relived sighs but Luffy looked down right disappointed.

"But Nami the book says they do, so they have to exist!" The look on the rubber-boy's face made it clear what he wanted to do; he _wanted _to see on of these things and bad.

"No Luffy!" The navigator shot back.

"It will be easy" He whined "we'll just go to that fortress thingy and see if they're real or not."

"There is a problem with that shencho-san." Robin said as she snapped the book shut "you see the fortress is…" everyone perked up and turned toward the beautiful raven-haired woman in question.

_"Don't say it!"_ They all silently begged with her _"don't say it!"_

"Forbidden."

_"Too late, we're in for it now."_ Everyone's heads drooped and sweatdrops formed. They all knew they weren't getting out of it now, Luffy was going one way or another and he was going to drag everyone with him.

"Then it's decided! We go to the forbidden fortress thingy to see if the evil diamond things exist!"

"Demons not diamonds Luffy." Corrected Chopper

"That's what I said." The captain was smiling that pre-adventure smile of his which meant there was no talking him out of it, they were going and that was that.

"B-but Luffy, don't you think this could be dangerous?" Usopp pleaded with the boy to see reason.

"Y-yeah." Agreed the furry little doctor

"Guys" their captain smiled boldly at them eyes shining "its going to be an adventure!" They were lost causes by that point, Luffy was chattering away about how much fun it was going to be and soon after Usopp was declaring that he had defeated a hundred demons when he was only six. The others were making plans on how to sneak in to the fortress, seeing that they had no way of getting out of it now. Zoro sighed and groaned inwardly, this was the last thing he needed right now, his head was _killing_ him. All he wanted to do was stay on the ship and sleep, this damn headache was driving him crazy. He tuned the others out with ease and was left with the sensation that his head was going to explode at any minute.

_"I _really _don't_ _need an _adventure _right now!"_ he thought bitterly to himself as he resisted the urge to rub his temples. But even then in all of his pain he had to wonder if demons, the monster he had been called since childhood, really did exist. Somewhere deep within him he felt the growing feeling that something really bad was about to happen.

To be continued…

**-.-**

**Okay so it's been what? Two years? I'm really sorry and I mean REALLY sorry that it took me that long to get this up. I can fully promise that the next chapter will NOT take as long. (I now have a friend who will literally kick my butt if I get too late) So I'll try my hardest to get the next one up faster. I would also like to thank all of you who reviewed and continually pestered me, that really helped a lot (trust me, it did) Well then the fun begins in the next chapter! See ya then! **


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